I'm currently in Wellington - and loving it - as always.
New Zealand Sea Lions
Once a display window for a department store in Dunedin's Octagon, this structure behind Dunedin Public Art Gallery was converted into additional exhibition space in 1996, when the old DIC store was transformed into the city's new art gallery. It's now a showcase for objects and images created by contemporary New Zealand artists. It's handily located right next to one of my favourite little Dunedin cafes, Mazagram, in Moray Place, who have set up some of their tables in front of the window. This work, which took my fancy in a big way on a grey Dunedin day, is "Jacob's Ladder," by Karyn Taylor - fluorescent lights, lighting gels and electronics, 2010. www.dunedin.art.museum 
Three more views on Otago Peninsula on an idyllic May day.
The last two days in the South Island have seen major flooding, sleet, hail, rain, snow, yet just a few days ago, this is what I was experiencing in the far southeast of the South Island in that blissfully remote and rugged region called The Catlins. The weather was perfect - all the better to show off the many beautiful beaches that most of New Zealand seems to be unaware of. The beach/estuary above is at Papatowai, just down from the tiny community that boasts one of only two stores in the whole of the Catlins - a stretch of land close to 180km long. Understandably, the population swells every summer as holidaymakers descend upon this beautiful spot.
And then there is Tautuku Bay (above). I stopped (like hundreds of people a year), at Florence Hill Lookout to look dpown on this stunning crescent of golden sand. There's no road into the beach - just a walking track through bush - and the owners of the cluster of little cribs on the far green headland (not visible in this shot), access their dwellings with tractors and 4WDs across the Tautoko River at low tide. Back in the old days, there was a whaling station and quite a community on the headland.
Curio Bay in the south of the Catlins is a different kettle of fish - not so much a spectacular beach as a rugged, swirling kelp forest that surges over the rocky tidal platforms with every wave. This is where you'll find a fossilised forest, clearly visible in the rock platform at low tide. Thought to be 160 million years old, it's one of the iconic attractions of the Catlins.
I loved this sign on the headland that separates Curio Bay from the calm sweep of Porpoise Bay (below). Such an understatement, given that the land drops away into the unwelcoming ocean below.
And Porpoise Bay may have been my favourite. This is the view I woke up to from my motel room - just a few metres from the sand, in the company of sea lions. The bay is 'home' to a large pod of rare Hector's dolphins in summer, known to come very close to swimmers. Perhaps the best thing of all about the Catlins beaches is the absence of people. Even in summer when the so-called 'crowds' come in, you can still have entire bays and long beaches entirely to yourself. This was my first trip down the Catlins for ten years and so much has changed in that time. For a start, most of the roads were gravel last time I drove down; now the entire main road is sealed, and even many of the off-shoots are sealed. I guess that's a good thing from a motorist's point of view, but me? I prefer the gravel and the sense of discovery that comes with venturing down remote, narrow, twisting, steep roads to pretty bays that feel as though they have been forgotten by all but the abundant wildlife.
A Growing Collection
It was a murky, gray, drizzly day when I recently visited The Church of the Holy Innocents at South Canterbury's Mount Peel Station. It wasn't my first visit - and not the first time I had enjoyed the beauty of this little architectural gem.
The church sits across a stream from the stunning Mount Peel Homestead, which belongsd to the Acland family - one of the early settling families of the South Canterbury region. The church was built in 1868 and its dedication to the Holy Innocents of St Matthew's Gospel is especially appropriate, as four young children who had died in infancy between 1864 and 1869, are buried on the hillside where the church now stands.
Anyone reading this blog regularly, will know that I have a particular interest in photographing church architecture - not for any particularly religious reasons but rather more for the fact that I find church architecture inspiring; and the interior of churches say so much about their communities from a sociological point of view. And it's the details that draw me in. I am of course in awe of big grand churches and the cavernous, beautifully detailed interiors that many of them present (many of those appear on this blog) but there's something about the small, humble, New Zealand country church, often tucked away down dusty side roads, that touches me more.
This particular churchyard is also famous for the fact that it is the burial place of internationally-regarded, New Zealand born crime writer and theatre director, Dame Ngaio March (1895-1982), who published 32 detective novels between 1934 and 1982 and was regarded as one of the world's 'Queens of Crime Writing.'
The church was constructed from stone gathered in the local river and limestone brought from Mount Somers by bullock wagon. And like most of these small country churches, it is richly embellished with interior timbers from nearby native forests. 
I'm not going to lie - I cheated with the Otago Penninsular albatross.
So I went Otago Museum instead and caught this fellow flying from the rafters. He seemed a much more likely bet for me. ...a ready solution for a girl in a hurry. www.otagomuseum.govt.nz 
Otago Peninsula on a fine day has got to be one of the most impressive places in New Zealand - and not just for the renowned ecotourism operations and the abundance of wildlife that lives there. The geographic features are equally beautiful - mirror clear harbour waters; long stretches of golden beaches and not a soul in sight; quaint harbour settlements; tortured trees bent over by the winds......I love it all. I spent all day yesterday driving around the peninsula, visiting assorted tourism operations, wandering beaches, photographing birds and boats. The weather couldn't have been better and by the time I had finished, I had more photos than I could poke a stick at. These are three, taken earlier in the morning on the coastal road on the way out. www.dunedinnz.com 
Oxford Farmers' Market
